The Rants & Rambles of A Grumpy Old Dude

Statistics Status Stasis

I’ve seen other bloggers gleefully, boastfully, posting about their year-end WordPress stats. Much against my own advice and better judgement, I’ve decided to serve up a little tale of my own results.

I don’t remember WordPress presenting stats, last year. Even if they did, I only managed to get out two posts in late November, and another two in December, before the *Flu To End All Flus* almost ended me, and F….ouled up my vision. I could barely run the keyboard, much less the WordPress platform.

Over the past year, I’ve improved and increased my output, but still didn’t set the world on fire. The fireworks on my report consisted of a picture of the kid next door, with a birthday candle in a cupcake. In my report’s reference to Mount Everest, apparently the cargo plane hasn’t even landed at the airport in Nepal. If my output were compared to Sisyphus pushing the boulder up the hill, he’d still only be halfway up, the first time.

Actually, not setting the world on fire with my prose is not a disappointment. It was neither an expectation nor a desire, when I started. Veni, Vidi, Vocab. You came, you read, and you commented, and for that, I am greatly gratified. I continue to read, and be read by, some interesting and impressive people.

Actually, a couple of things about the daily report, interest and confuse me more than anything in the big year-end wrap-up. Along with other bloggers, I am surprised by the themes of posts which seem to attract the most views. Post something about Native poverty, or religious intolerance, and get the usual crowd slouching through, kicking the tires. Put up a little fluff piece, and have to step back into a corner, to keep from having my toes stepped on.

My most visited piece this past year, was a (hopefully) humorous acceptance speech for a blog award which had been flung at me. For three or four months, my most-visited day was 71 viewers. Near the beginning of December, suddenly that same day was only worth 69 views. Wha’ happun?? Did two of my readers die?!

I offer that possibility flippantly, but, one of my followers is a cancer sufferer, and another is a hopefully recovering drug/alcohol addict who was missing for about three months, because she had a car crash. Neither has posted in months. I am concerned! Can any of you techies out there explain why my reported viewership is shrinking? I believe I remember Edward Hotspur mentioning that the same thing had happened to him.

The other thing which baffles me, is the new, “so many actual visitors/so many different page-views” daily report. During one day, when I checked, the report showed 5 visitors, and 6 separate views….yet I had 10 *likes*! Somewhat later in the day, when my ego drove me to check again, it still showed only 5 visitors….but now 7 different views, even though all views were of the most recent post, and I now had 11 *likes*.

Again, if one of you who understand WordPress workings wishes to explain its arcane actuarial tables, I’m interested, but not concerned. When I reached my one-hundredth post, I expressed concern about coming up with more blog-themes. It may have been like driving past a traffic accident, but apparently I entertain a few folks, and was urged to continue posting my digital diarrhea. I’m now near 140 posts, and occasional ideas continue to pop up. You’ll not get rid of me easily. I’m goin’ out typing and tapping….

……Gerry Seinfeld just called. He said, Enough of the Yada-Yada, Nothin’ already, put this puppy to bed before all my readers doze off. I just threw this post together because I wanted something time-sensitive. I’ll be here all week, ladies and gentlemen. I’ll be back soon with a Christmas-cookie photo spread, and some more serious fare. A Happy New Year to all, and to all – good blogging.

My own blogging experience accumulates 3 years this spring. Looking back, I recall a feeling of satisfaction in seeing my readership grow. This was the period in which I was getting things off my chest, expressing opinions that needed an outlet and memoirs that improved with the telling. I found it cathartic but I don’t feel a strong need for repetition. Instead, I’ve settled into a mode of satisfaction with discourse. In a blogosphere filled with a thousand superficial voices looking for something – identity? attention? – I’ve found a few who combine a gift of self-expression with an interest in the human condition, autodidacts with a continuing freshness of viewpoint. Accordingly, I publish very few posts these days but instead find pleasure in discourse on other blogs. Yours is one of them, Archon.

I too just write what I want, and hope that my small band of readers like it, but I am intrigued by, the Movie Inception, or Orwell’s 1984, change of reality in mid-step. This is the kind of thing that politicians and religions specialize in. I notice, where many don’t, or don’t care, and I resent it.

Boastfully? Gleefully? Not I – I was GOB-SMACKED! Shell-shocked, even! Eternally grateful that people would actually waste time on my drivel! Now you, being the grand elder statesman of blogging, shouldn’t be surprised in the least. With such truly overwhelming talent, your only surprise should be that you’re not Freshly Pressed EVERY day!
(Just so you know, the note requesting you to co-sign on a car loan should be in your mailbox in a day or two. 😉 )

I love the little smiley faces, especially the animated ones. Seldom at a loss for words, there are still times and places where they would add a certain elan to my comments. John gave my wife a tutorial, and I’m off to see if she can teach me.

Ah, FreshPressed, a boon, and yet a curse. After the Tanker was afflicted with it for almost three weeks, I wasn’t so sure. About that car loan….you’re the only one of my co-bloggers that I’m sure understands POOR. I still have an ’04 car, till it falls apart, but I have to finance a McDonalds coffee.
Speaking of coffee, do you ever drink Tim Hortons? In Ohio? I know that Wendys started sprinkling them on the west side. Do you have a near enough chunk of civilization to warrant one? Do they have to clean up after the Amish buggies in the drive-thru?
All these, and many more interesting questions, answered today on “Archon Goes For Therapy”.

No Tim Horton’s nearby, sadly. I don’t do coffee, so no info on that one, either. We DO have drive-thrus in “the nearby big town” (Coshocton), and oddly enough, Amish HAVE been seen at them. I’ve never seen anyone clean up after, though a fair number of the Amish who go into “English” towns will have catch bags under the horses’ butts.
And my car (or rather my wife’s) is an 87. Normally she drives a 96, except it literally broke the left-front suspension mount, and we’re trying to find somebody to fix it both cheaply, well, and willingly – an impossible combo so far.
And I’ll bet you never DREAMED I’d answer these many questions, did ya? 😉

I didn’t NOT dream, and I’m always glad when you, or any other of my visitors reveal some personal info, amateur psychologist that I am, it gives me a feel for a writer’s personality. I also do not drink coffee. Never did, although I splash some in my hot chocolate to reduce the sweetness.
I’ve seen Coshocton on a map, like Jeff Foxworthy’s Georgia, it’s PURPLE! A city(?) of 12,000 should have some drive-throughs, although I guess Tim’s breakaway hasn’t skated that far east, in Ohio, yet. I’m sure I’ve seen your house in the aerial map view, at the Y of the roads, across from the church. I just don’t know which one is yours.
Forever looking for humor, I offered the Amish drive-thru reference, knowing that it could well be correct. I’ve never actually seen any local Mennonites at any drive-throughs, but I’m sure it must happen. Like the road strips that call up green lights, there must be enough metal to set them off, or clerks don’t know anyone’s there. I’ve been places on my motorcycle where I had to put it over on the stand, and go push a *walk* button. Search term for today was, Mennonite porn.
I’ve seen catch bags too. I took the daughter and a friend to a dog-breeder’s farm up-country, just past a Mennonite church, and had the passenger ask, “What’s all that stuff on the edge of the road?”

Hmm … “at the ‘Y'”? I think you got the wrong town, dude. I’m in a little hole called Fresno. Across from the (appropriately named) Fresno United Methodist Church. Ours has a largish shed behind the house with a 2-car garage behind the shed. Long, thin lot.
Oh, if you want comedy, remind me to write about the Amish. They aren’t one monolithic group – each “order” has its’ own rules, varying from hardcore (a kerosene-lamp-lit house – AWESOME at night in winter) to really “loose” (cellphones and computers). It’s a hoot to pass a carriage at night, and see the LCD-blue glow from the back of the buggy! One of my favourites is one larger order does allow electricity, but not connection to the grid. So they power everything off car batteries, and take the batteries out to the road where they have a little shed with a drop from the electric lines and a big car-battery charger. Yeah – we old-timey wargamers call those folk “rules lawyers”. 😀

I’ve stopped checking my stats ever since WP started distinguishing between number of site views and unique visitors. Seemed a bit depressing. I’m just glad to have people stop, like and comment on my blog posts. Better to enjoy quality visitors than worry about quantity of visitors.

I’m with you on quality over quantity. I see a hundred comments on ByronicMan, or MadameWeebles, and most of them are just, nice blog, good post. I like the group I get here, crazy, but intelligent. I try to return the favor, which explains my presence on your site. Often my comments are totally non sequitur. Post about Amish, and I’ll ask if you drink coffee. Others have made the obvious comments and questions, so my squirrelly mind runs up a different tree.